of the treaty of peace, which stipulates for the CHAP VIII. payment of debts, to justify a permanent detention 1794. of the posts on the southern side of the great lakes, and to effect the ultimate establishment of a new boundary line, whereby those lakes should be entirely comprehended in Upper Canada. These views, if really entertained, would be materially affected by the advance of an American army into the neighbourhood of Detroit, and the establishment of a chain of posts from the Ohio to the lakes. Early in the spring, a detachment from the garrison of Detroit repossessed and fortified a position near fifty miles south of that station, on the Miamis of the lakes, a river which empties into lake Erie at its westernmost point.

This movement, the speech of lord Dorchester, and other facts which strengthened the belief that the hostile Indians were at least countenanced by the English, were the subjects of a correspondence between the secretary of state and Mr. Hammond, in which crimination was answered by recrimination, in which a considerable degree of mutual irritation was displayed; and in which each supported his charges against the nation of the other, much better than he defended his own. It did not, however, in any manner affect the operations of the army.

The delays inseparable from the transportation of necessary supplies through an uninhabited country, infested by an active enemy peculiarly skilled in partisan war, unavoidably protracted the opening of the campaign until near midsummer. Meanwhile, several sharp skirmishes took place,

CHAP. VIII. in one of which a few white men were stated to 1794. be mingled with the Indians.

On the eighth of August, general Wayne reached the confluence of the Au Glaize and the Miamis of the lakes, without opposition. The richest and most extensive settlements of the western Indians were at this place. Here, he halted a few days, for the purpose of throwing up some works of defence and protection for magazines.*

The mouth of the Au Glaize is distant about thirty miles from the post occupied by the British on the Miamis of the lakes. In the vicinity of this post was collected the whole strength of the enemy, amounting, according to intelligence on which general Wayne relied, to somewhat less than two thousand men. The continental legion was not much inferior in number to the Indians; and a reinforcement of about eleven hundred mounted militia from Kentucky, commanded by general Scott, gave a decided superiority of strength to the army of Wayne. That the Indians had determined to give him battle was well understood; and that its issue would be favourable to the American army, the discipline of his legion, the ardor of all his troops, and the superiority of his numbers, authorized him confidently to expect. Yet, in pursuance of that policy by which the United States had been uniformly actuated, he determined to make one more effort for the attainment of peace without bloodshed. Messengers were dispatched to the several hostile tribes who

* A fort had also been constructed on the St. Mary, twenty-four miles in advance of fort Recovery.

1794.

were assembled in his front, inviting them to ap- CHAP. VIII. point deputies to meet him on his march, in order to negotiate a lasting peace. They were exhorted to be no longer deceived by the counsels of bad white men at the foot of the rapids, who had neither the power nor the inclination to protect them; and they were urged to accede to the present propositions, as holding forth to them the only means of being restored to their possessions, and of rescuing themselves and their families from famine.

On the 15th of August, the American army advanced by slow and cautious marches down the Miamis, with its right covered by that river; and on the 18th, arrived at the rapids. Here they halted on the 19th, in order to erect a temporary work for the protection of the baggage, and to reconnoitre the situation of the enemy.

The Indians were advantageously posted behind a thick wood, and behind the British fort.

General

defeats the

the Miamis

At eight in the morning of the 20th, the American army advanced in columns: the legion with Wayne its right flank covered by the Miamis: One Indians at brigade of mounted volunteers commanded by general Todd was on the left; and the other under general Barbee was in the rear. A select battalion, commanded by major Price, moved in front of the legion sufficiently in advance to give timely notice for the troops to form in case of action.*

• An evasive answer having been returned to the pacific overture made from the Au Glaize, general Wayne was uncertain whether the Indians had decided for peace or war

CHAP. VIII. After marching about-five miles, major Price 1794. received so heavy a fire from a concealed enemy that he was compelled to retreat.

The Indians had chosen their ground with judgment. They had advanced into the thick wood in front of the British works which extends several miles west from the Miamis, and had taken a position rendered almost inaccessible to horse by a quantity of fallen timber which appeared to have been blown up in a tornado. They were formed in three lines, within supporting distance of each other; and, according to their custom, with a very extended front. Their line stretched to the west, at right angles with the river, about two miles; and their immediate effort was to turn the left flank of the American army.

On the discharge of the first rifle, the legion was formed in two lines, and the front was ordered to advance with trailed arms, and rouse the enemy from his covert at the point of the bayonet; then, and not until then, to deliver a fire, and to press the fugitives too closely to allow them time to load after discharging their pieces. Soon perceiving the strength of the enemy in front, and that he was endeavouring to turn the American left, the general ordered the second line to support the first. The legion cavalry, led by captain Campbell, was directed to penetrate between the Indians and the river, where the wood was less thick and entangled, in order to charge their left flank ; and general Scott, at the head of the mounted volunteers, was directed to make a considerable circuit, and to turn their right flank.

These orders were executed with spirit and CHAP. VIII. promptitude; but such was the impetuosity of 1794. the charge made by the first line of infantry; so entirely was the enemy broken by it; and so rapid was the pursuit; that only a small part of the second line and of the mounted volunteers could get into the action. In the course of one hour, the enemy was driven more than two miles, through thick woods; when the pursuit terminated within gun shot of the British fort.

General Wayne remained three days on the banks of the Miamis, in front of the field of battle, during which time the houses and cornfields above and below the fort, some of them within pistol shot of it, were reduced to ashes. In this general conflagration were consumed the house and stores of colonel M'Kee, an English trader, whose great influence over the savages had been uniformly exerted to continue the war. During these operations, a correspondence took place between general Wayne and major Campbell, the commandant of the fort, which is stated by the former in such a manner as to show, that hostilities between them were only avoided by the prudent acquiescence of the latter in this devastation of property within the range of his guns.

On the 28th, the army returned to Au Glaize by easy marches, destroying on its route, all the villages and corn within fifty miles of the river.

In this decisive battle, the loss of the Americans, in killed and wounded, amounted to one hundred and seven, including officers. Among the dead was captain Campbell, who commanded